


In Time We Heal

by Dikhotomia



Series: Whumptober 2k19: FE3H Edition [14]
Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Day 14 Tear-stained, Gen, post flayn's kidnapping, the Rhea and Flayn interaction canon never gave us
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-16
Updated: 2019-10-16
Packaged: 2020-12-20 18:47:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21061433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dikhotomia/pseuds/Dikhotomia
Summary: ""You must remember that you're safe now," Rhea says, the words sitting like acid on the back of her tongue. "The Professor will do everything in her power to make sure nothing will happen to you again." She hates that anything happened to her in the first place, her teeth grinding at the poisonous thought that drips into the deep corners of her mind. Painfully aware what would have happened had they not rescued her."ORRhea offers comfort to Flayn.





	In Time We Heal

There's an air about the monastery now that sets her on edge, that forces her usual relaxed grace into a ridged line of tension she does her best to hide. Jumping at the slightest noise, tensing when she hears someone coming and waiting for an attack that never comes. But everyone has slid into a mood like that, knights and students and staff all on high alert and wondering where the enemy hidden among them lurks.

The relief at Flayn's safe return was short lived, Seteth almost refusing to let the girl out of his sights when she wasn't in classes or nearby Byleth and the rest of the Black Eagles. None of them know what to expect, so she does her best to keep the peace among them. Murmuring words of support, telling them that pointing fingers without evidence is exactly what their enemies want them to do. "In time," she says. "In time they will give themselves away and we will be ready."

And she can only hope she's not made a liar.

Because every step they take she feels as though they are too many behind. 

That fact haunts her, weighs upon her shoulders as she sends her Knights out and has them be her eyes and her ears, her heart sinking a little more into dread the more they come back with nothing. She's responsible for too many lives to feel as helpless as she does, stabbing in the dark at shadows that could possibly harbor either an enemy or noting at all. 

She stills on her path back to her room at the sound of sobbing behind her, hiccuping breaths and the sniffle that had jarred her from her thoughts. She tears to find Flayn behind her, rubbing her sleeves over her tear-stained face, sobbing uncontrollably despite her clear efforts to stop.

Rhea sees her again as a child, sobbing and clinging onto her, asking her over and over again why. Why the death, why the pain, why the fighting. Why Why_ Why_\--

"L-Lady Rhea-I-I am-" She heaves a great, shuddering breath and Rhea kneels down, extending her hands to her. The girl comes to her without further comment, stepping into the circle of her arms and throwing her own around her neck. She holds tight, face pushed to her shoulder as she shakes, cries turned silent and hitching.

"Did you have another nightmare?" Rhea whispers, rubbing her back. Flayn nods once and Rhea wishes she could chase them away, but she is helpless in the face of the specters visible only to the younger woman. All she can do is offer comfort to the best of her ability.

"I cannot get it out of my head," Flayn mumbles against her shoulder, the fabric now wet with her tears. "Every time I close my eyes lately I am there again, living it over and over again."

"You must remember that you're safe now," Rhea says, the words sitting like acid on the back of her tongue. "The Professor will do everything in her power to make sure nothing will happen to you again." She hates that anything happened to her in the first place, her teeth grinding at the poisonous thought that drips into the deep corners of her mind. Painfully aware what would have happened had they not rescued her.

Her blood. Her body --

The very idea makes her sick.

"I know, and I am very thankful to the Professor and the Black Eagles, they have been nothing but supportive to me. It is just...so hard to shake this feeling and these nightmares." Flayn pulls back to look at her, sniffling once and Rhea straightens, ushering the younger woman into her quarters. 

"The nightmares will fade with time," she assures, handing the girl a handkerchief. "The hardest part is getting through them, learning to conquer them and cope with them. The important thing is that you have friends and family who will support you through it."

Flayn laughs. Faint, a little hiccuping. "If only my bro-father saw it that way. He is very good at terrorizing any friends I may make away."

Rhea sighs, rolling her eyes ceiling ward and reciting a silent prayer for the girl's sanity. "Yes your father is...very overprotective. But you already know it's because he cares a great deal about you and is worried. He doesn't wish for you to get hurt since humans are..." she trails off, gaze averting to the low fire simmering in the fireplace. "Complicated is putting it mildly."

Humans were a lot of things. Complicated, volatile, yet predictable all in one. She couldn't understand them like Seteth or Flayn, but she had seen and experienced enough to understand why Seteth worried as much as he did. Even if she found some of his behavior a little insufferable.

"I'll have a word with your father," she adds finally, taking a seat at her desk. "See if I can convince him to give you a little bit of peace to interact with the other students. But know that he's going to be worse than usual until everything calms down."

"Right now I welcome his over-protectiveness," Flayn says, settling on the side of Rhea's bed. "But eventually I would appreciate some distance."

"I will do my best," she promises, smiling faintly. "But that's about all I can do when it comes to him."

"If I must I will say something myself."

Rhea laughs and soon Flayn joins her.


End file.
